Last weekend, Alex and I were in Philadelphia. It was our first time visiting the city so we did some research and made a list of all the vegan restaurants within 5 miles of our hotel. (Quite serendipitously, the current issue of Chickpea Magazine had a vegan guide to Philly! I took copious notes as I made my lists in Evernote.) One restaurant that did not come up on our radar during this research, however, was Vegan Commissary. It only opened in December 2013 so it is brand new, explaining why we only stumbled upon it on Saturday morning as we searched for a place to get vegan breakfast/brunch. For such a new restaurant, though, it already had a lot of good reviews on Yelp so we decided to go there.
…Man, oh, man, was this place amazing! I had the breakfast wrap while Alex had the tempeh hash with poached avocado. We then followed that up with cinnamon rolls and quinoa porridge. (Walking everywhere, especially in snow and slush, works up quite an appetite!) We were in absolute vegan food bliss.
Now, I didn’t get to try the tempeh hash with poached avocado but I decided to recreate it—or my version of it—for breakfast today. The following is what I came up with and it was quite divine, if I do say so myself.
- 8-oz tempeh, cubed
- 1/4 C onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- 1/2 C potato, chopped into 3/4-inch pieces
- 1/2 C sweet potato, chopped into 3/4-inch pieces
- 4 Tbsp raw pumpkin seeds, chopped
- 2 Tbsp, rounded, nutritional yeast
- 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- salt and pepper, to taste
- paprika, to taste
- 1 avocado, halved and peeled, pit removed
- 2 Tbsp water, divided
- 1/4 C cashews, soaked overnight or for at least 4 hours
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- pinch sea salt
- pinch cayenne pepper
- 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp lemon juice
- 5 Tbsp water
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 handful of baby spinach
- 2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
- Sriracha, to taste (optional)
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Combine all ingredients except paprika in a bowl and stir until everything is well coated in oil. (Add more oil as needed.)
- Lay out in a thin layer on a cookie sheet or in a shallow, wide dish. (If the dish is too deep, the top will brown and the rest will simply cook. You want to achieve maximum crispiness here.)
- Dust with paprika and bake for about 18 minutes, or until beginning to brown.
- While the hash is cooking, take out two square sheets of foil.
- Place an avocado half in the middle of one foil sheet, drizzle with 1 Tbsp water, and seal it (like a roomy pouch). Repeat for the other half.
- Once the time is up on the hash, stir the tempeh mixture and place the foil packets on a separate rack.
- Crank up the temperature to 400°F. Cook for another 5 minutes.
- Drain and rinse the cashews. Place them in a blender with the rest of the ingredients. Blend until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary.
- Just before serving, heat the sauce in a microwave until warm (15-20 seconds).
- Divide the spinach among two plates.
- Spoon tempeh hash onto the dishes.
- Top with poached avocado.
- Drizzle with hollandaise sauce and sriracha (if using).
- Sprinkle on the fresh parsley.
- Enjoy!
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